Will Bunch

STAFF COLUMNIST

Will Bunch has worked at the Daily News for 20-plus years and is now senior writer. Since 2005, he’s written the uber-opinionated, fair-but-dangerously unbalanced opinion blog "Attytood," covering a range of topics (but mostly politics and the media these days); it’s been named best blog in the state by the Associated Press Managing Editors and best blog in the city by Philadelphia Magazine. He’s also authored three full-length books and three Amazon Kindle Single e-books, including 2015’s The Bern Identity: A Search for Bernie Sanders and the New American Dream. Prior to coming to Philadelphia, he worked at New York Newsday, where he was part of a team that won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for spot news reporting.

At roughly 2:40 p.m. this afternoon, Jill Beccaris-Pescatore of Glenside realized a long-time goal as she crossed the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

Just 10 minutes later, she was a block and a half away when she heard the explosions.

"It sounded like a cannon," said Beccaris-Pescatore, a 45-year-old economics professor from Montgomery County Community College. "It definitely sounded like an explosion. People know that it didn't sound right."

Within seconds, Boylston Street -- where she was picking up the bag with her clothes -- was filled with ambulances and police cars. Beccaris-Pescatore was relieved to know that several friends who'd completed the race ahead of her were OK, and so were her husband and son, who'd been spectators just a couple of blocks before the finish line. But at the same time she is horrified that the iconic running event became the apparent target of terrorists.

"It's just terrible and it makes me so angry," she said by cell phone from Boston this afternoon, adding that "it puts the whole thing in perspective."

Yesterday, she brought that same resolve to speaking about the attack on the race. She vowed that she will be back in 2014.

"We'll do it again next year -- we'll be back," said Beccaris-Pescatore. "This kind of stuff just angers you. Whoever would do such a thing to all these people who came out to see their friends and family?"